A gay supervisor in San Francisco is coming under fire for his push to repeal a requirement that city contractors offer domestic partner benefits to employees.

The city adopted the landmark equal benefits ordinance (EBO) in 1997 to provide equity to same-sex couples in domestic partnerships. The EBO was passed before 18 years before marriage equality was granted nationally with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v Hodges.

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Supervisor Matt Dorsey thinks the ordinance is now anachronistic in the wake of the court’s decision.

“I would be the first to argue that the [EBO’s] added expense was entirely defensible when the underlying principle of the equal benefits ordinance was equity for same-sex couples who were legally denied access to marriage,” he told the Bay Area Reporter. “It is not defensible today.”

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Dorsey’s trial balloon was shot down last week by the author of the EBO, gay former supervisor and California state assemblymember Tom Ammiano.

“It’s very disturbing to hear, especially from a gay man,” Ammiano told the aforementioned publication. “Harvey Milk always said you’ve got to always look over your shoulder. It’s very disturbing that someone from our community thinks an ordinance like this isn’t worth it.”

“It’s not well thought-out, at least, and unnecessary,” Ammiano shared with the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s a totally misplaced priority, especially given the hate climate that exists today and the Supreme Court talking about repealing gay marriage and all the anti-trans stuff.”

Jeff Sheehy, a gay former supervisor and another public face of the EBO fight in the late 1990s, pointed to the ordinance’s success in moving corporations to adopt same-sex domestic partnership benefits. At the time, and others staged protests outside United Airlines’ downtown San Francisco ticket office, along with Tinky Winky, the “gay” Teletubby denounced by the late and homophobic Rev. Jerry Falwell.

“Why are we going backward?” he asked in the present day. “Why are we closing a door we may need?” 

“Bank of America was the first employer in North Carolina to offer domestic partner benefits,” Sheehy said. “We got the entire airline industry to comply.”

Dorsey addressed Ammiano’s concern about Obergefell with a pledge to include a clause making the EBO effective again if the Supreme Court struck down their 2015 decision.

Despite the pushback, Dorsey is forging ahead with the repeal effort. On Tuesday, he sent a letter to the supervisors’ legislative analyst’s office asking for information on the estimated costs to taxpayers for compliance and enforcement of EBO provisions.

Dorsey’s proposal comes as San Francisco grapples with a notoriously burdensome city bureaucracy, and amid efforts to pare in back.

Gay supervisor and board president Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes the Castro gayborhood and is helping lead that fight, was noncommittal about Dorsey’s plan to scrap the EBO.

He acknowledged that the EBO was landmark legislation in its time but also noted that the “number of social policies baked into procurement” is “cutting out lots of companies,” making them reluctant to locate within the city for fear of having to provide costly benefits to unmarried employees and their partners.

Nevertheless, the EBO has “a really important history,” he told the Chronicle, “and we have to treat it carefully.”

“Many of these laws were groundbreaking in their time, and I’m not opposed to getting rid of them,” he said. “We just have to be thoughtful.”

A similar choice was faced by supervisors in 2023 when Dorsey and Mandelman urged the board to lift the city’s ban on contracting with companies located in states that have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, abortion restrictions, or limitations on voting rights.

That repeal passed, and Dorsey hopes the same spirit of pragmatism will prevail on the question of the EBO’s fate.

“This is not to dishonor the work that was done to make the EBO possible, but at some point, we have to question if it’s worth the money, and whether our laws are making a difference,” Dorsey said. “It’s not a question of whether we end benefits or not, but we need to get a handle on how much money we’re spending.”

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